Prologue
To give you some background before I go into the content here, I had just concluded a successful interview (the first of two) and was stopping by the library on my way home. The trip from there was bizarre – random acts of generosity sprung up, seriously making me wonder whether the world was conspiring to be generous, or whether it was some kind of karma day.
Act I: A mother with a stroller
I held the door open. Seems ordinary enough, right? It all started here.
A mother with three kids, one of which was in a stroller, was trying to get out the front door. Maybe that entrance wasn’t accessible, because the door wasn’t opening for them.
So before I entered, I held the door open for them, allowing her to get her stroller out.
I entered the library no wiser that this was the first act of many.
Act II: Library
I only had to check in two books, and the library has self-serve check-in machines, to which I wandered when I entered.
It’s really an easy process, but the lady overseeing check-in still had to help the patron in front of me, for whom it was probably a first-time experience.
“Yeah, that’s it. You just push here on the screen and put your books on the table.”
My usual experiences with librarians are far worse.
Act III: Viva
Viva bus at a bus terminal; credit IRT.BMT.IND (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0)
I ran across the street to catch the bus that was about to leave.
For those of you unfamiliar with this transit system, an individual with a ticket ‘validates’ the ticket on a machine before boarding the bus. That’s what I attempted to do.
The machine that takes in a ticket and validates it
I became frustrated because the machine wouldn’t take in the ticket – even after 4 or 5 tries, and even more frustrated because I was making the bus wait. I gave up, and boarded anyways through the door beside the driver. I genuinely intended to validate the ticket.
A minute or two into the ride, I asked the driver whether it was okay if I validated the ticket at my destination. His response surprised me.
“Sure… if you want.”
What the heck? Now, Viva is nicknamed “Free-va” because of the honour system on which fares work. Offenders keep their tickets without validating them – avoiding the fare – and are occasionally caught by enforcement officers.
Was this generosity, entrapment, or plain dereliction?
I fully intended to validate my ticket at the destination.
It’s very difficult to live life entirely without stress. No matter how calm and peaceful one wishes to be, there will always be events in one’s life that test the limits of psychological endurance.
I experience stress on a daily basis, and perhaps much more so this month. As for my methods of dealing with stress, I enjoy music, knowledge, and technology.
Music
Classical and soundtrack music are especially enjoyable for me. I find that they contribute to a calmer emotional state, especially with beautiful orchestral pieces. (See what kind of music I like at Music to Hear.) Listening to the Brandenburg Concertos by Bach, for instance, Ennio Morricone film score, Planet Earth incidental music, or Hans Zimmer’s remarkable compositions, or Karajan’s amazing interpretations, probably bring my mood from stressed out at 8/10 to 3/10. This is one of the reasons that I listen to music while I’m doing work.
Take a look at a video of one of my favourite pieces, conducted by the composer Ennio Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Learning
TED videos are really inspiring to watch. Whether it’s Al Gore or someone talking about the importance of bread, I find TED to be an absolutely amazing source of inspiration.
Developing knowledge helps to take my mind off pressing matters, at least temporarily. And that’s one of the reasons that I like reading news, reading design blogs and so on.
Humour
FAIL Blog, NotAlwaysRight and FMyLife are all amazing sources of humour. Laughing is probably the easiest way to enjoy oneself for a while.
Today, I got a cross-country job promotion. I decided to plan my Going-Away-Forever party, and bought a pack of 100 invitations. After mailing them out to all my friends, I have 92 left. FML (source)
This keeps me amused, but is by no means as effective as music — after all, I can listen to music while working, and this humour stuff takes away from time I could be putting towards resolving causes of stress.
Et vous?
What do you do to keep your stress at an acceptable level? (You can select multiple answers. Choose any item if it has a soothing / stress-relieving effect for you.)
Here are a few things that really irritate me:
- inconsistent usage of Canadian/American/British spelling; for instance, writing ‘favour’ throughout but slipping in something like ‘neighborhood’
- bad marking schemes
- taking questions off after the evaluation is written; for instance, an exam out of 119 becoming out of 100 — in that case, every loss of a mark is much greater in terms of percentage
- an evaluation with required questions that become optional; for instance, questions 101–119 becoming ‘bonus’ questions when nothing specifically makes them harder or more suitable as bonuses
- mentions of topics that pique one’s curiosity, followed by a denial of that curiosity in the form of a “never mind”; for instance, mentioning a piece of highly interesting gossip and then refusing to speak about it
- mainstream media
- constant bombardment of viewers with biased reports; for instance, Lou Dobbs
- mentions of online or Web 2.0 communities specifically with the intention to appear ‘cool’ or ‘hip’ or ‘up-to-date’; for instance, CNN’s unnatural use of Twitter
- Windows Live Messenger’s ads at the bottom of the contact list
EDIT: I’ve removed them by using A-Patch, but A-Patch doesn’t change the fact that I’m annoyed with those ads. - Safari 4′s unreadable tabs on Windows Vista+
- music without verifiable ‘artistry’ to which fanboys and fangirls listen repeatedly or habitually
- books and movies with fans who are attracted by mere plot or appearance or celebrities
- “buggy software”
- EDIT: also, it is hugely distressing for me to hear intelligent people degrade themselves… I understand that not everyone has good self-confidence, but come on… you guys are smart and have amazing potential. Don’t discourage yourself from achievement.
Here’s my list of things for which I am grateful, and I’m not even at home:
- technology
- food
- warmth
Perhaps I am feeling happier. The National Seminar hasn’t even started yet… meeting other delegates is an interesting experience.
Here’s my list for today of things for which I am grateful.
- food
- stress management
- light!
Am I feeling happier yet? Not really. In fact, I’ve been feeling more and more stressed out lately. In any case, that’ll be fixed by Tuesday of next week.
My Twitter updates are still not being synchronized to my blog, but hopefully that’ll be fixed with the next update of Twitter Tools.
M.W. recently suggested to me that writing down the things for which I am grateful will lead to some sense of happiness. I’m willing to try this out, because there is a sound psychological basis for doing so; this activity forces a person to realize all of the positive things that exist in the world around them.
I also realize that, perhaps you aren’t particularly interested in my personal life (although I’d point out that that is what many blogs focus on). I will return to posting other interesting things since I have nearly exhausted this topic.
It wouldn’t be too convenient to make a new blog post every day or even every week for this topic, so I’m going to place some of them on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/frederickding) or check this blog (since my Twitter updates are automatically re-posted here daily).
My three-item list for today (November 14, 2008):
- a warm, safe, and hospitable home
- an intelligent and thoughtful mind
- friends who care
I really wouldn’t mind if you decided to share a few of the things for which you are grateful, either by commenting here or by signing up for Twitter and letting me know about you.
ADDENDUM: of course some things will need to be kept private. But even the private things will be posted, except under lock and key.
ADDENDUM 2: here are my lists for November 15 and 16:
- life
- liberty
- health
- friends who are smart
- a Macbook Pro
- friends who care too much
